[Leica] Hexar leak, dud service

[pbjbike at yahoo.com (Patrick Jelliffe)]

Have your exposures showed any indication of this
light leak, or is it only a viewfinder/viewing
problem?

Regards,

Patrick


--- lindnich@lindnich.plus.com wrote:
> Having owned a Konica Hexar RF for nearly four years
> it came as a
> shock to discover that it suffers from a light leak
> from the
> rangefinder. An early UK review of the camera
> commented on poor flare
> performance so when I noticed flare into the light,
> especially with
> the 28mm f2.8 Hexanon, I assumed this was what I was
> seeing. Only
> after finding a comment on the web about a light
> leak from the
> rangefinder did I check for this. I found light
> leaking from the
> central window down a short tunnel which carries the
> cam-follower
> pivot. Its easy to spot with the lens off by holding
> a small torch
> against the centre window. The 28mm Hexanon adds to
> the problem by
> exposing some bright brass and chrome of the rear
> helicoid to this
> light and reflecting it directly towards the film.
> Now I see why the
> Hexar is cheaper than a Leica!
> 
> Has anyone else on this list come across this
> problem?
> 
> This camera was bought new so I returned it to the
> dealer who returned
> it to Konica/Minolta as they are now  called. They
> have had the camera
> for eight weeks. They had my explanation of the
> problem from the
> start, but they have so far only run tests on it.
> They haven't felt
> inclines to believe my explanation. Even though two
> weeks ago I spoke
> to one of their technicians, who proved to his own
> satisfaction that
> light could be seen through the lens throat as
> explained above. He
> didn't believe this was the cause of the problem!
> 
> Has anyone else on this list had problems of this
> sort with service
> departments?
> 
> I complained to the manager of the service
> department  who wasn't
> forthcoming with any explanations for the failure to
> fix the camera in
> eight weeks. But he promised me the camera would be
> fixed this week.
> 
> I wonder whether I can trust these people to put the
> camera back
> together properly.
> 
> For any Hexar owners wanting to check their camera
> for this fault the
> quickest test is as follows:
> 
> With a lens fitted and a lens cap on, using auto
> exposure and 100 iso
> film, point camera straight at sun and shoot. My
> camera gave an
> exposure which sounds like one 15th second. Repeat
> pointing camera
> towards a shady area; exposure is about 30 seconds.
> This simple test
> was too difficult for Konica/Minolta uk service
> department to work-out
> for themselves over eight weeks ;[
> 
> Of course, it took me nearly four years......
> 
> 
> BWs Gordon Nicholson.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>                         
> mailto:lindnich@lindnich.plus.com
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for
> more information


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